The preferred method of manufacture of most metals and alloys is by casting followed by mechanical working to break up the coarse cast microstructure and improve the mechanical properties. For beryllium, however, this technique is used only to a limited extent because grain size can be reduced by mechanical working of the type described herein to a typical value of 75 um at the minimum temperature of 1500.degree. F at which the beryllium microstructure is fully recrystallized. This coarse structure results in a body of low strength and ductility. Because of this problem, most structural beryllium is made by hot pressing beryllium powder which maintains a fine grain size, typically 20 um, by virtue of BeO particles formed during powder manufacture. The fine grained hot pressed bodies exhibit mechanical properties superior to cast bodies. BeO particles cannot be used to grain refine cast beryllium bodies since BeO is insoluble in molten beryllium and of different density from beryllium. As such, BeO particles segregate during the casting operation and are not distributed uniformly enough to produce a refined grain structure.